IBM's Big Green pledge

Added by The Editor, about 1 year ago.

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IBM has today announced plans to spend $1 billion each year on increasing the level of energy efficiency in IT, both within its own data centres and those of its customers.

Under the plan, dubbed ‘Big Green', the company ‑ which runs the world's largest commercial technology infrastructure and is responsible for eight million square feet of server farms - has said it will deploy a raft of new technologies, from energy monitoring software to leading-edge virtualisation capabilities, aimed at cutting data centre power consumption.

Deploying new systems and techniques will enable IBM to slash energy use by 42 per cent in its average 25,000 square foot data centre, said company executives. That will reduce carbon emissions by almost 7,500 tonnes a year.

"The data center energy crisis is inhibiting our clients' business growth as they seek to access computing power," said Mike Daniels, senior vice president of IBM Global Technology Services. "Many data centers have now reached full capacity, limiting a firm's ability to grow and make necessary capital investments. Today we are providing clients the IBM action plan to make their data centers fully utilized and energy efficient."

Our take: This announcement highlights the true scale of the environmental challenge the technology sector now faces. It's a wide-ranging, far-reaching strategy, backed up with some serious cash.